Small but perfectly formed – what’s your iQ?

Posted by Colin Hensley on February 20, 2009 in Design

 

I used to be responsible for crash testing here in TME. That was a fascinating but very sobering experience, and consequently we have very clear rules on the use of seat belts and booster seats in our family. (Rose & I have two children, Katie [13] and Tim [10]). We used to have a Prius, and the fact that it offered 104g of CO2, as well as 5-star Euro NCAP-rated crash protection was pretty appealing.

We have just launched the iQ, a car which is breaking new ground. It’s less than 3m long but seats three adults plus one child, and offers 99g of CO2! Sounds great, doesn’t it?

“Yes” I hear you say, “but small cars don’t always offer the same safety levels as bigger cars, and you just said safety was so important!”

Sure I did, but this is where the iQ is so, well, awesome. It has just received 5 stars in the new 2009 Euro NCAP safety assessment. The new rating considers adult, child and pedestrian protection, as well as the availability of driver assistance devices (things like stability control to you and me). So it covers more of the aspects that are important to us all: it’s about real world safety.

We know that we have to make compromises in life, and that this can be a real paradox for us. But, after so many years at Toyota, I feel pretty strongly that we have the right kind of attitude and skills to tackle this kind of paradox head-on (pardon the pun…).  Small but safe, perfomant but economical, complex but recyclable… it’s exactly the kind of challenge we’re up for.
Okay, it ain’t perfect yet, but we are doing our best.

What do you think?

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